Homestead Life

Sustainable agriculture is serious business around here, it's rare to meet someone who doesn't have a garden or a full-up farm - real ones, not factory farms. That's the reason that our cultural twin, Vermont, is the first state to require GMO labelling. It's also explains why a tiny community provided a viable quorum for a lecture on permaculture last night.

Marie Depres, a certified permaculture designer, lives nearby and was the presenter. Suzy and I attended and we learned a little about permaculture. Perhaps it's wishful thinking but it feels like this is the leading edge of a trend that can change the existing wasteful, unhealthy and unsustainable agricultural industry.

Icon depicting the twelve design principles of permaculture.

Suzy has been busy in the garden, not exactly a permaculture ecosystem but it does incorporate many elements. It's a haven for birds and pollinating insects. We are harvesting some of the early veggies such as kale, peas and lettuce. 

I'm working on our Walden-inspired shed. It took a while to set the pier blocks and level up the floor rim joists, but once that was accomplished it was a fairly straightforward job to install the joists and plywood deck. Then I had a big, flat, 16 x 9 area to build up the stud walls. That's a slow, methodical process, especially the gabled ends. Here's what it looks like so far:

The beagle is getting a bit more comfortable with living in the forest and she now spends all day outside. Sometimes she even sleeps under the truck, learning to be a true Adirondack dog.

As for events, we attended a play at the Pendragon Theater in Saranac Lake. It was a full house for the final performance of 'Red'. The story involved an artist, Mark Rothko and Ken, his assistant. Maybe I was just tired from working outside all day, but I didn't get it. Suzy explained some of the profound plot points to me later. Despite my cluelessness I did enjoy the acting, for me there's no such thing as a bad night at the theater. In a couple of weeks we'll be attending a dark comedy by Christopher Durang at the Recovery Lounge, our local theater that gravitates to that genre.

Upper Jay Art Center, aka the Recovery Lounge Theater

We also have our activities, Suzy and her horses, my firehouse meetings, training sessions and occasional calls. Our new station should be open in a few weeks, and it'll be nice to store my turnout gear at the station, in an actual locker, instead of our already-cluttered front porch. A few of the firefighters also work at the volunteer ambulance service in AuSable Forks, so I'm attending their meetings. It's the same protocol - fill out an application, introduce yourself at a meeting, find a sponsor and if there's a place for you they will put your application up for a vote by the members. I've been to one meeting so far. The work is unappealing - I never cared for biology - but, like so many volunteer agencies, they are struggling to cover the needs of the community.

We've had a few hot (mid 80s) days but it was 49F this morning. The hottest day of the year is theoretically July 25, so we're getting close to the peak of summer. Fall is just around the corner, so we have to get serious about installing our new windows and laying in the firewood for a long heating season.